Dear Emily, Hey girl, it’s Briana! It’s been so long since we’ve last written each other. I thought that I would write you this letter just like we used to write each other letters in middle school. Since you are an English Education major, I thought you would enjoy hearing about a play turned into 6-part television piece I recently watched for my Voices of Diversity class. It is called Fires in the Mirror. The play is based on a real life situation that happened in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. It all started when a Jewish man jumped a curb while driving. While doing so, the man hit a seven year old African American boy on his bike. Due to serious injuries sustained from the car, the young boy later died. The boy’s death caused an uproar in the surrounding community. The African American community and Jewish community fought against each other and caused many riots to break out. Instead of mourning the little boy, everyone argued with one another and tensions were incredibly high. It was interesting to me how instead of mourning the loss of the little boy and coming together to remember his life and possibly make a change in the community, the two groups rioted and made the situation more difficult than it needed to be. If I was a member of the little boy’s family, I would be extremely distraught and more upset if all of this chaos was going on around me. I would hope that each group would be able to come together and be respectful of such a saddening loss. The woman who wrote this play, Anna Smith, performed the piece as a one woman show, which I thought was quite interesting. She portrays multiple characters that are based on real life interviews she had with people from the Crown Heights community. I felt that the people were very well represented form both sides. I hope that if you have any spare time you are able to watch the 6-part made for television or read the play. If you do, please let me know how you felt about it. Miss you!! Sincerely, Briana Sellers
Hey girl, it’s Briana! It’s been so long since we’ve last written each other. I thought that I would write you this letter just like we used to write each other letters in middle school. Since you are an English Education major, I thought you would enjoy hearing about a play turned into 6-part television piece I recently watched for my Voices of Diversity class. It is called Fires in the Mirror. The play is based on a real life situation that happened in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. It all started when a Jewish man jumped a curb while driving. While doing so, the man hit a seven year old African American boy on his bike. Due to serious injuries sustained from the car, the young boy later died. The boy’s death caused an uproar in the surrounding community. The African American community and Jewish community fought against each other and caused many riots to break out. Instead of mourning the little boy, everyone argued with one another and tensions were incredibly high. It was interesting to me how instead of mourning the loss of the little boy and coming together to remember his life and possibly make a change in the community, the two groups rioted and made the situation more difficult than it needed to be. If I was a member of the little boy’s family, I would be extremely distraught and more upset if all of this chaos was going on around me. I would hope that each group would be able to come together and be respectful of such a saddening loss. The woman who wrote this play, Anna Smith, performed the piece as a one woman show, which I thought was quite interesting. She portrays multiple characters that are based on real life interviews she had with people from the Crown Heights community. I felt that the people were very well represented form both sides. I hope that if you have any spare time you are able to watch the 6-part made for television or read the play. If you do, please let me know how you felt about it. Miss you!!
Sincerely,
Briana Sellers